After the Fact
by ItTicklesLikeCrazy
Summary: After PP, Danny didn't reveal himself and life continued on as normal. After four years away at college, Valerie, and her boyfriend, Zane, decide that they want to move back to Amity Park and start a coffee shop. Along the way, Valerie discovers a secret deeper than her own that orbits around Danny, Phantom, Dani, Sam, and Tucker. DxS, VxOC.
1. Beginning

**GUYS! It's my birthday on Tuesday, October 22! I decided I'm going to post yet ANOTHER story for you guys, because I started this when i was bored and didn't have any access to my computer. It was going to be a oneshot, but it didn't happen like that. ENJOY!**

_**IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT!**_

**-Phantom Planet happened, but Danny didn't tell anybody about his secret, and life continued as normal**

**-I'm very insecure that Zane is horrible. If he is, please, please tell me. Go, "your OC Zane sucks because he's boring. Make him hate cheese to improve him" or something like that. Please.**

**ENJOY!**

**PS. I DO NOT AND PROBABLY WILL NEVER OWN DANNY PHANTOM AND THIS WILL BE MY ONE AND ONLY DISCLAIMER FOR THIS STORY. YOUR WELCOME!**

The slightly overly peppy lady sent one last, sad glance at the empty store before letting her instant smile return. "Well, it's all yours," she stated as she shoved the key into my hand. "And the best of luck to you." She turned away and got into the florescent pink car parked on the curb in front of the moving truck. I watched as the pink eyesore drove around the curb and out of sight before turning back and looking at the shop.

It seemed nice enough, from the outside. The walls were painted a cheery coral pink color with white trim. It had two stories, one we would use for the shop and one that functioned as a two-bedroom apartment. Oh yes, it seemed nice enough, except that the color was a little aggravating.

"Well," Zane put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Are we going to get settled in, or are we just going to stand here staring at it all day?"

"Yeah, you're right," I told my boyfriend. "We need to get everything unpacked quickly, the moving van company charges by the day. If we can get everything up there tonight, that would be good."

Zane chuckled lightly and tucked a stray strand of my just-above-the-shoulder length dark hair behind my ear before making his way towards the moving van. That was his way of telling me we didn't need to worry about money. In my eyes, that was a lie.

I unlocked the door to the store and held it open as Zane stumbled past me with no less than four huge boxes loaded in his arms. "Oh here," I volunteered once he'd made his way past me. I grabbed the largest box from the stack, careful not to mess up the balance of the rest of them, and carried it up the stairs to the apartment part of the building.

I set it down in the middle of the room, which was a small kitchenette. I heard a small 'oof' from farther down and struggled to keep a smile off my face as I went to help Zane carry the rest of the three boxes up the stairs, which the fool had attempted alone.

We had to dissemble the bed to get it up the stairs, and reassemble it once we got all the pieces in one place. I had insisted on getting at least the bed upstairs and unpacked, because I refused to stay in a hotel for one more night. Not only was it expensive, a lot of the girls in the hotels flirted with Zane. Zane was viciously loyal (and overprotective) so I didn't worry about that, but I was rather annoyed by it.

We spent most of the day moving everything into the building, whether downstairs or upstairs, and unpacking enough to sleep in our new place. When Zane checked my watch, grabbing my wrist and twisting his head around enough so that he saw the time right side up, and saw it was 7:30, he insisted on taking a break.

Before I could protest, he grabbed me by the hand and practically dragged me down the stairs, barely pausing to snag the key from where I'd placed it on a box in the kitchen. He locked up the store and slipped the key into my hand, assuming correctly that I'd want to carry it.

"Show me around town?" he wondered.

"Of course," I replied with a soft smile. My boyfriend grinned and, once again placing his hand in mine, began to walk. I looked around the town, taking in all the changes to Amity Park since I'd left four years ago. A lot could change in four years.

"Val?" Zane's voice broke me out of my train of thought, and I looked to his slightly worried face. "You've been staring at that lamppost for, like, two minutes. You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I responded, squeezing his hand. "It's just a strange to be back after so long."

"About that," Zane gave me an apologetic smile. "I know you're going to hate me for asking this, but you're not going to go back to…"

"No," I replied shortly. "The Red Huntress is long gone. Danny Phantom can take care of any ghost threats the town is facing, just like he's been doing for the past eight years. You and I both watched the suit burn two years ago, everything but the detector." One never knows how handy a ghost detector can be, especially when you're living in Amity Park and you've previously hunted some of the ghosts.

"You know, it's strange to think that my girlfriend almost destroyed the several times savior of the world," Zane mumbled. "You're amazing Val, but can you tell me why you did it? You never have before; besides telling me that you had blamed him for something he that wasn't his fault."

"Well," I hesitated. I hadn't told him for a reason. "Sure," I sighed. "When Phantom was just starting out, he made a lot of mistakes. One of them involved a ghost dog he so eloquently nicknamed Cujo."

Zane laughed. "Cujo? Like the Steven King novel?"

"Yes, but anyway, Cujo was the ghost of one of the dogs that had been used at Axion Labs before Dad's security system was employed. He came back looking for a squeaky toy, but nobody knew that at the time. Cujo ran rampant around town while Phantom tried to stop and delay him. However, Phantom refuses to do anything more severe than weaken his enemies and didn't do anything but throw him back in the Ghost Zone again and again."

Zane squeezed my hand reassuringly, silently urging me to continue. "Dad was showing off the security system to the official when Cujo ran through, dragging Phantom by the foot and destroying everything. The security system captured us instead of the ghosts, because it wasn't designed to capture ghosts. Nobody thought they were anything but figments of the Fentons' wild imaginations. The official got a little angry when the only thing the security system managed to catch was us, and Dad barely managed to sustain a job as a nightshift security guard. I, being used to living the comfortable life, got a little angry, actually, very angry."

I sighed. "Now here comes the dumb part. Phantom's arch enemy, Vlad Masters, who we now know as Vlad Plasmius, thanks to the Disasteriod incident, was looking for a little revenge on Phantom and saw me as a great opportunity," I growled. "He set a box full of ghost hunting tech, the first suit, where I would find it and left simple instructions on how to work it. I fell right into his hands and eagerly jumped at the opportunity, not only as revenge but also as a way to get my anger out after being ditched by the A-List members and my so-called 'friends'.

"I went after Phantom, but he was much better at the game than me, and avoided me at every turn, each time. I'd shoot at him while he was defending Amity and fighting a ghost, and a few times he even took a shot from an enemy ghost for me. Soon after I showed up, he found out my real identity." I blushed and ducked away from Zane's gaze.

"There were a few incidents where I almost saw him for the hero he was. A ghost obsessed with hunting wanted the thrill of the hunt and handcuffed us together on his island in the Ghost Zone so he could hunt us down like animals. Once a ghost bug bit me and it gave me the ghost power of invisibility, though it also made me very sick, along with almost everybody else from our school. Phantom got the bugs out of us before they could do any harm. He also fought of the ghost king, Pariah Dark, even though he had nobody to help him and he didn't have to. I also helped him save his half-human half-ghost cousin, Danielle, from Vlad.

"Though there was also a time I hated him more than anything. A really sweet boy who helped me handle my two jobs and get a promotion so I didn't have to be absolutely miserable at the Nasty Burger, and who accepted me into his friend group after the popular kids kicked me out, even though I had never been anything but mean to him, he was named Danny Fenton. We started to date, well, almost. He was attacked by a ghost in my suit, and barely made it out alive. Phantom came back and destroyed the first suit, knowing that I wasn't in it. I didn't know that he knew that, though, and I thought that Phantom could put Danny in danger, so I broke it off with him and vowed even more revenge, after I got the new suit from a ghost who knew I would take off after Phantom and distract him from stopping the ghost."

Zane looked slightly worried, and I lifted his chin up do his brown eyes met my green ones. "I'm over Danny, and I have a wonderful boyfriend named Zane. I have given up ghost fighting and I am now living back in Amity Park after four years away at college. I'm going to try to reform bonds with whoever remains in Amity Park, and my wonderful boyfriend and I are going to start a coffee shop, because nobody can ever have enough coffee. Understood?"

Zane smiled at me and pecked me on the lips. "Understood," he whispered. "But, I keep hearing this name pop up. Who are the Fentons?" He pointed a finger west of where we were standing and I felt a smile tug at me lips when I saw the ostentatious FentonWorks sign in the distance.

"The Fentons are a family of ghost hunters. Jack Fenton, the father of the family, is a bit of a goofball but is extremely loyal and determined when it comes to his family. Maddie Fenton is the mother of the family, and she is the best shot and most serious ghost hunter in the family, but she loves her kids. Jazz Fenton is the daughter of the family, as well as a scholar who, until the middle of her Junior year, wanted nothing to do with ghosts. Danny Fenton, the son of the family, denies anything to do with ghosts and is actually very scared around them, constantly running away. Some people theorized an allergy to ghosts, because he seems to almost sense them before they come, and gets out of the area very quick."

We walked in silence for a little while before, "Hey Valerie?" Zane got my attention quickly by snapping his fingers in front of my face. "Where do you know that we can get a bite to eat, I'm starving!" He gripped his stomach comically and made a strained face.

I laughed, though it was a little forced. "Hey, let me show you the restaurant I used to work. After all, nasty is only one letter away from tasty."

**Yes, I did have to use that. This chapter may be a little dull, but I hope you like the next one. It tells us what happened to our main characters.**


	2. Siomium Books

**YAY! I have a couple coincidences in this, but I bet you'll be surprised at the person at the register of Siomium. ENJOY!**

Zane scooped me up and carried me, bridal style, all the way home from the Nasty Burger. The cashier was nobody I recognized from High School, which I was relieved about. Right then I had just wanted a nice dinner with my boyfriend for three years.

Zane set me down on the bed and then had lay down next to me, both of us tired as heck. I was asleep before my head even touched the pillows, not even bothering to change out of my clothes.

I woke to Zane's smiling face as he shook my shoulders to wake me. He gave me a bagel with plain cream cheese for breakfast and began to unpack more of the boxes while I ate. I soon joined him and we worked quickly, talking as we unpacked box after box. We didn't have many things to unpack anyway, besides clothes, a couple chairs, and a table. We piled all the boxes in one corner and went downstairs to fix up the shop.

There was already a long counter that followed two of the walls, with just enough room in between for two people to pass each other without difficulty. The counter was there since this place had been a cupcake shop that had housed two couples, which had put it up for sale once on of the woman had become pregnant and they decided they needed a bigger living space.

Zane took responsibility of making sure everything was in order, along with placing the coffee machine where we had planned. I made sure to clean up anything that needed cleaning and busied myself with inventory of the things we'd bought early yesterday. Zane joined me once he finished with the coffee maker. We worked exceptionally fast, and got most things in order by 2'o'clock.

"Hey," Zane caught me in a hug from behind. "What are we going to paint the outside, because I'm not a big fan of pink."

"I was thinking brown with green trim," I said, squirming around in the hug so I was facing him and placing my arms around his neck. "The name we agreed on was 'Steam' right?"

"Yup," Zane replied, popping the p. "I'll go get some paint tomorrow, and we can paint the 'Steam' sign too. Right now, though, I think we're pretty far ahead of expectation. Let's go talk to a few of the neighbors, Miss Workaholic, because if I don't get you out now, you'll never get out. Life requires a certain amount of fun, Val, and I'm here to make sure you get it."

He pulled away from the hug, but his hand found mine instantly and we made sure to lock up the shop before walking away. The first shop next to ours was a comic book store. Zane bought a Danny Phantom comic for me, only because the Red Huntress was the key character in it. It talked about my life underneath the suit, but since they didn't actually know anything they got it very, very wrong. Zane thought it was hilarious, and I smiled, just a little.

We made our way around the block, going from shop to shop, until we ended up standing in front of the shop on the other side of our building from the comic book store. It was a building the same height as ours, painted black with elegant white swirls randomly painted across it. Above the door some of the white swirls converged to form the words "SIOMIUM BOOKS" in fancy script.

Zane walked through the already open doors with me not far behind. Bookshelves were arranged in neat rows to either side, but there was a wide aisle right down the middle that led straight to the register. A royal purple carpet that resembled a Hollywood red carpet led to the register from the door, but alternating black and white boards placed in a hardwood floor pattern was the floor under the bookshelves. I could barely see a reading niche to the right of the register with comfy chairs and beanbags, cloaked in squishy, royal purple carpet. Whoever owned this place had style.

Zane and I reached the register, and I spotted an old-fashioned silver bell sitting on the counter that read, ring bell for service. Apparently Zane saw it to, for he picked it up with grace and rang it. High-pitched notes resonated through the store, and I touched Zane's other hand, the one holding the bell, before he could get too enthusiastic ringing it.

"Just a second," said a voice from behind me. An elegant lady slipped around Zane and me and took her place behind the register. An elderly man set a few books on the counter and she scanned each book with something that looked familiar to a library scanner. The old man handed over several bills and the lady took them and placed them beneath the register counter.

"Thank you," she told him as she handed him his books. He hobbled past us with a small smile on his wrinkled face. "How can I help you?" the lady asked, and for the first time I got a glimpse at her face.

"Paulina!" I croaked, shocked. Zane looked over at me with mild curiosity, but knew that he'd find out later.

"Valerie!" Paulina was equally surprised. "I thought you moved away. I haven't seen you in forever. Some people will be so surprised you're back. Who is this?"

She seemed friendly enough, and I managed to recover just enough to stand up straight just as Zane reached his hand across the counter and shook hands with her. "I'm Zane, Val's boyfriend. We met in college and Val wanted to move back here after. Right now we're living in the building next to yours."

Paulina laughed. "Oh no! This isn't my building, but I do work here, and surprisingly, I enjoy working here." She gave me a meaningful look before continuing, "I know I may not have been the nicest girl in high school, but I've been trying to make amends since then."

"Well, who owns this then?" Zane wondered.

Paulina smiled a genuine smile. "I bet Valerie could guess. Who likes black more than everybody else?"

"Sam?" I was shocked, not by the fact that Sam owned a bookstore, but by the fact that she let Paulina within fifteen yards of her.

"Yeah, I know, right?" Paulina gave me a slightly mournful glance. "She didn't want to give me a job even though she needed extra help. Danny Fenton talked her into giving me a chance, and every time I messed up he was insistent on listening to my side of the story. He always made sure Sam kept me around, even with all of the horrible things I did to him in high school. I owe him a lot; thank goodness, he seems to be the only person that can convince Sam to do anything she doesn't feel like doing. They started dating a little while ago, as Tucker stated, 'clueless has finally left the building'."

"Danny, Sam, and Tucker are still around?" I wondered excitedly. Sure, Sam and Tucker hadn't been extremely nice to me all the time, but they had been nicer than others.

"You'd be surprised at how many people stuck around, considering everything," Paulina replied. "One of the most amazing things I owe Danny is Sam's friendship. I don't think she'll ever forgive me for everything, but she has forgiven me for a lot, and now we hold a small bond. She helped me get over my complete obsession with Phantom, though I still admire him, and I helped her relationship with Danny by giving endless hints. Now I get a large enough salary to support me from working at Siomium Books, I've got all the friends I need, and I'm working on getting a nice boyfriend. A lot has changed since high school."

"You're telling me!" I exclaimed. Nice Paulina? Four years ago the thought would have been laughable, but now, I wasn't so sure.

"Oh my gosh! I almost forgot!" Paulina said suddenly. "Wait here," she commanded, and then rushed off.

**Were you surprised at Paulina? So was I, I did not plan that, but it happened anyway. No, she doesn't know about Danny.**


	3. Reunions

**YAY! This chapter is really rushed, with all the random appearances. Yikes, just please try to keep up.**

"So, how did you know her?" Zane wondered.

"She was one of the A-List kids. Paulina Sanchez, queen of Casper High. Samantha Manson, whom you would call Sam unless you wanted her to shove her combat boot where the sun doesn't shine, was resident goth 'loser'. Danny Fenton was Dash Baxter's, who was the king of Casper High, favorite punching bag and the biggest loser of the losers. He was also marked a troublemaker because he always seemed to have to be somewhere else and was constantly running out of class. Tucker Foley was the famous Techno-geek of the school, even though there were others. Sam, Tucker, and Danny were known as the 'loser trio', but it seems that at least Sam was successful after college."

I heard a squeal I immediately identified as Paulina's, and a moment later I spotted her appearing out from behind one of the bookshelves to the left of the register. Behind her she led a familiar woman.

Sam had changed since high school, along with everybody else. She now wore black skinny jeans with a flowing, purple shirt. Her hair was no longer in its ponytail and it had grown just past her shoulder blades. Her skin was just as pale as before, but now she wore traces of eye make-up on her face, along with a slightly darker shade of purple lipstick. One of the only things the same about her were the gothic colors and the familiar combat boots.

"Valerie!" Sam exclaimed. "What are you doing back in Amity Park? Surely you're not moving back because you miss the ghosts?" The last sentence was phrased as a joke, but there was a slight edge to it. Almost as if she knew something.

"No, I wanted to be closer to my dad, and be back in the familiar environment. Plus, we all know that Phantom can take care of the ghosts, right? I've heard that Amity's population has almost doubled because they want to be close to the ghostly hero just in case another catastrophe occurs."

"Yeah, some people want to be close to the savior of the world." Sam looked proud, almost. "Paulina rushed upstairs babbling something about you being back, then almost killed me in an attempt to get me down here. I'm surprised to see what you look like now. Shorter hair, different style, new boyfriend…"

"You've changed too," I replied. "This is my boyfriend Zane, we're making a coffee shop next door."

"Does that mean that the building next door isn't going to be pink anymore?" Sam asked excitedly. I laughed and nodded, and she beamed. As in, smiled brightly. As in, the thing most goths didn't do.

"Excuse me?" All four of us turned to see a fourteen-year-old girl holding a piece of paper in one hand and balancing several books on the other. "Can I get these before they fall?"

"Sure!" Paulina responded enthusiastically, sliding behind the counter and taking the books in one fluid movement. She scanned each one with the scanner and asked the girl in a smooth tone, "Do you want a bag?" The girl nodded and Paulina said, "It's $38.95 total."

The girl put the sheet of paper down on the counter and dug in her pocket. I scanned the heading and found it said, Mr. Lancer's reading list for advanced students. The girl slapped a fifty down on the counter and Paulina quickly handed the girl her change and books, which were now in a fabric bag that said SIOMIUM BOOKS on it.

"Next time you can bring the bag and we'll just put the books in it, you don't have to buy it," Paulina sang. The girl snatched up the reading list of the counter and scurried out.

"So Mr. Lancer is still punishing students with reading lists longer than the Great Wall of China?" I asked jokingly.

"Yes," Sam answered, nodding. "And he just loves me for having a bookstore and emails me the list every year to make sure I order the books in advance. On the upside, I get a lot of kids interested in reading because of the way the store looks." I glanced around at the gothic look once again, and I had to admit that if I was a freshman reader, I would definitely at least be a bit interested.

"Hey Sam, did you do something new with your hai-"

"You still have to pay for that, Tucker," Sam interrupted. I turned to see Tucker Foley standing behind me, holding three slim objects that almost looked like DVD cases.

"Aw, darn it!" Tucker exclaimed, and set the cases, which were indeed DVDs for movies titled Zombie Teacher 1 through 3, down on the counter for Paulina to scan. Instead of the mustard yellow long sleeve shirt and the olive green Capri's, Tucker wore a white muscle shirt that showed off his arms and tan cargo pants, though he still retained the red beret.

Paulina scanned the movies and Tucker handed over a twenty. Paulina handed back two dollars and Tucker scooped up the movies. "I have a feeling I'll be renting these a lot in the future," Tucker said, looking down at the three movies. "Anyway, who are these two people?"

Sam slapped her forehead with her palm and sighed. "Sometimes I swear… Tucker, does the girl look even the slightest bit familiar?"

Tucker studied my face for a moment. "Uhh…is that a trick question?" Paulina and Sam simultaneously face-palmed while Zane stifled a laugh next to me.

"Valerie!" I heard a voice exclaim from behind me. Wow, today was just full of that, wasn't it? I spun on my heel, and was flabbergasted to see who was standing.

"Hey Val! It's so nice to see you again!" I found myself being pulled into a hug by Dani Phantom, the little ghost girl I had rescued so long ago.

"Dani? But- huh…what?" I stuttered. Dani was wearing a red sweatshirt that only went down to her midsection, but underneath was a blue shirt. She wore a blue skirt and her hair was in two long ponytails, one to each side, curling elegantly at the end. She still had her red hat and red and white sneakers, and had a smile the size of Texas pasted on her face.

Dani giggled. "I work at Siomium as a part-time job after school. After the Disasteriod incident, I could finally settle down because Vlad was taken care of. Danny took me in and gave me a family, though he insisted I go to school. I'm a Senior in High School now, at Casper. Everything is awesome, and I have an awesome family, though the Fentons were a little skeptical at first. They don't know about certain aspects of me yet. I heard you went away for college, this is such a nice surprise!"

"So…who is this?" Zane whispered.

"Valerie!" Tucker exclaimed. Everybody ignored him.

"Zane, this is Dani. Dani, this is my boyfriend, Zane," I introduced them.

"Uhh…" Zane trailed off with a weird expression on his face. "I thought Danny was a boy…and older."

Dani burst out laughing at this. "Danielle, actually, I go by Dani. Spelled D-A-N-I, for future reference. You've probably heard about my adoptive older brother D-A-N-N-Y Fenton, and Sam's boyfriend."

"You just can't get over that, can you?" Sam asked sourly. Dani gave her a sly smile and shook her head.

"Okay, just asking, nobody else, like Star, is going to pop out right now, right?" I asked, a little shocked by all the sudden appearances.

"Just one more," an almost unfamiliar voice said from behind me.

**Tucker has muscles! Siomium Books, kind of an interesting name. Why did I make it so hard to spell? Nobody knows. My spell check wants to kill me between Siomium, Paulina, Dani, Fenton, Vlad, Disasteriod, and all the Uhh...'s. There are red squiggly lines all over the page. I hope poor Zane can keep up! Of course, his girlfriend is Val, so he should be pretty good. Again, if you think you can improve Zane, please tell me how. He kinda sucks right now.**


	4. The Famous Danny Fenton

**I made Paulina nice and perceptive. WHAT!? I think that may have been a bit of a mistake. ENJOY!**

I spun around, once again, and saw Danny standing there. He looked like he had before, and was probably the one who had changed the least out of all of us. He wore the same style of shirt, white with red trim, but he had a red long sleeve shirt underneath, even though it was fairly hot out. All his clothes were baggy, and his hair was still messy.

"Danny!" I felt a smile creep onto my face.

"Valerie!" Danny mimicked, flashing a mischievous smile.

"Valerie?" Tucker repeated. "You mean, like Valerie Grey? Where?" Sam, Paulina, and Dani face-palmed in one movement.

"Right in front of you, you dolt!" Dani shouted. "Who else do you think that is?" Tucker's mouth formed an "o" shape and Dani rolled her eyes.

"So this is the famous Danny Fenton," Zane stated. "For some reason I thought you'd be a lot…different because all the descriptions."

"Well, you obviously know who I am, and you?" Danny reached out his hand to Zane.

"Zane Martin," Zane shook Danny's hand firmly. "I'm Val's boyfriend."

"Cool, it's about time she got somebody who can treat her right. I'm surprised Sam puts up with me, with my crazy schedule." Danny grinned at Zane, blue eyes sparkling. To my relief, not a hint of anything but good feelings seemed to reflect from them.

"Move!" A red-headed woman shoved Danny of the way, toting a Siomium Books bag and several books. She placed them on the counter snootily. I watched as Sam's face flared bright red and her mouth opened, probably to say something offensive. Danny placed a claming hand on her arm and shared a look with her, before whispering something and moving away. Dani looked like she wanted to snap at the lady, and so did Paulina and Tucker, but with a glance from Danny, they all shut up.

"That was rude," Zane said. It hadn't even occurred to me that he would speak up, I was to busy glancing around at the others. "Just because somebody is in the way doesn't mean you can shove them aside."

"Young man! Do you know who I am?" the woman asked superiorly. "I am Daphne, the owner of Daphne's Boutique, and you will not speak like that to me!"

Zane opened his mouth to say something else, but suddenly stopped. Paulina took this opportunity to hand the woman her books and wish the unpleasant woman I nice day. After she left the shop, Paulina's cheerful smile fell of her face, replaced by a scowl. "She should really learn that Danny is not somebody you just push aside. I may not be a part of the big secret yet, but I know enough to know that there is much more to Danny than meets the eye."

"Really, that woman!" Sam raged. "Somebody should call animal control! I don't understand how Danny can just brush it off and go do his last college math course. Why, if I were him I would—"

"Sam, breathe," Tucker interrupted. "Let's face it, we all want to. Still, Danny can brush it off, so we can too."

"I can speak like that to you if I wish, because here, in my eyes, you are just a sad old hag who shoved one of my new friends!" Zane suddenly shouted.

"Uhh…a little late for that," Paulina said dryly. "Still, I might use that next time."

"What just happened?" Zane wondered.

Sam rolled her eyes angrily. "Your mind was just held in suspension by a ghost boy who just doesn't know when to quit and let a fat old lady get a mouthful. Believe me, it'd happened to me before. Every since he learned telepathy, ugh… it's hard to yell at anybody who deserves it."

"Ghost?" I shot a curious look at Dani.

"Da—Phantom," Dani abruptly changed what she was saying in the middle of the word. "Phantom tends to want to let Sam keep as many customers as possible, so whenever she's about to lash out at somebody, he stops it. His powers kept growing, but mine stopped as soon as you guys stabilized me." Everybody glanced anxiously at Paulina except for Zane and Paulina herself. It was then I realized that Dani had told Sam, Tucker, and Danny about me being the Red Huntress.

"I know that you're keeping a big secret from me, guys, and it involves Danny, Danielle, Phantom, and apparently Valerie. Just tell me when you're ready, or maybe I'll figure it out. Until then, you can stop sending me worried glances. After all that Danny's done for me, do you really think I'd tell anybody about his secret? I know I was a conceited witch in high school, but I've tried to change. You don't have to worry so much, I don't have many clues.

"You know, Zane convinced me to burn Red?" I told them. Three mouths opened in surprise, one black eyebrow raised, but Paulina didn't react besides getting out a cloth and starting to wipe the surface of the register.

"How?" Sam asked, amazed. "How, you precious miracle worker, how? After the Disasteriod, she wasn't as revenge-bent anymore, but still, how? I bet her dad loves you!"

"Well," Zane stroked his chin comically. "Actually, it involved stealing it again and again until she decided that she was tired of me waking her up and we burned it together. She called her dad and I swear I though he was dancing in joy on the other end."

Tucker chuckled deeply. "Somehow, I can't picture that. I have to get back to Kelsey before she starts to freak out."

"You have a girlfriend?" I couldn't help but blurt it out.

Dani started giggling again. "Ha, good one. No. Kelsey is the nickname he gave the new video game he's writing out. 'She' starts to 'freak out' when 'she' glitches, which is often. Why he gives all his new video games nicknames is beyond me. I mean, Chelsea, Nicole, Amelia, Olivia, Diana, Isabella, and Kelsey. So far, he's only finished Chealsea, who's official name is 'Racer XZ', and Amelia, who's official name is 'Civilazation KRK'. Why they random letters after the first word, nobody knows, but they're there anyway. I'm hoping he's going to finish Diana soon, because 'she' is a puzzle game. I want to give it to Jazz for her birthday."

"You name your video games after girls?" Zane asked.

"Hey, when I was a Freshman I named my PDA's after girls, at least I don't name them after girls I know, after Sam repeatedly jumping on the PDA called Christine after the girl tripped her and dumped her lunch all over her,"

Tucker defended. Sam punched Tucker on the arm.

"Anyways," Sam began. "I've got to get back to work, and Dani, you should probably get busy with stocking the shelves. Tucker needs to get back to his precious 'Kelsey', and I'm hoping you guys will get that coffee shop up soon. I really need some quality coffee that's not Quego. If you need any help, feel free to ask. It was nice seeing you again, Valerie."

Sam swept out of the room. Another teenager, this one male, came up to Paulina with a stack of books. Tucker winked at both of us and strode out the door. Dani smiled and hugged me softly again before scurrying off. I grabbed Zane by the hand and dragged him out of there, getting back to the shop, and back to work.

**Well, I hope Tucker has fun with Kelsey. YAY DANNY! If anybody is wondering, 'Quego' is 'Quego Coffee', and will be mentioned later. My spell check hates me for that too.**


	5. Painting Steam

**I'm so close to the grand opening of "Steam". I hope you like the name. ENJOY!**

In a few days time, with more than enough help from our neighbors at Siomium, we had the interior of 'Steam' looking very nice. The outside was still pink, but I planned to fix that soon. I'd sent Zane to get a nice shade of brown, which I had picked out earlier, and a shade of green, which he had picked. He made jokes about how the paint colors matched our eye colors, which was strangely true.

Zane had gotten back, arms loaded with buckets. We'd set the paint outside, and had just gotten to actually working.

"Hey Val!" I heard Dani's perky voice from behind me.

"Hey Dani," I greeted the eighteen-year-old. "Don't you have homework you should be doing?" I turned to the rest of the party, which consisted of Paulina, Sam, and Tucker, "And the rest of you, shouldn't you be running Siomium?"

"Danny's handling it, and at the same time, studying for his math course online," Sam reassured me.

Tucker seemed to find this hilarious, for some odd reason. "Yeah, it's almost like he's in two places at once-OW!" Sam had elbowed him the ribs the same time Dani kicked him in the shin.

"So, are you going to let us help you paint over this horrendous color, or are we going to have to lock you inside and paint it for you?" Dani wondered.

"We'd be more than happy to accept your help," Zane agreed, before I could get a word in edgewise.

"Good, because with my help you'll get it painted an awful lot quicker," an echo-y voice said from nowhere. Both Zane and I looked around, and saw a previously invisible Danny Phantom appear floating at eye level next to Sam. Zane's jaw hit the ground when Phantom picked up a can of brown paint, opened it, and poured it onto one of the paint tray's Zane had bought.

"Surprised to see me?" Phantom asked, setting the tray down on the ground gracefully, while still managing to stay floating. He looked different too! He was still wearing his white boots, but instead of the HASMAT suit he wore regular jeans and a short-sleeved black and white T-shirt with the DP logo.

"To be honest, no," I replied. "You're always sticking your nose it where I doesn't belong, and one day it's going to get chopped off!"

"Intangibility, remember?" he wiggled his eyebrows. "Now, 'are we going to paint over this horrendous color' or what?" he mimicked Dani. She tried to hit him, but her hand just went strait through him and hit Tucker in the jaw.

"Ow!" Tucker scowled. "Just because you don't want to get hit by her, doesn't mean you can subject me to it!" Phantom just laughed and grabbed a package of roller paintbrushes. He ripped open the packaging and took one of the paintbrushes, while tossing the others to Sam and me. He opened another package with a well-aimed ecto-blast and kicked one to Zane while Dani and Tucker picked them up. Paulina went over to a can of green paint and opened it with a little bit of difficulty, and then tore open a package of smaller paintbrushes.

With Phantom painting the upper level, we didn't need a ladder, because he worked unnaturally fast, being unnatural himself. Whenever anybody walked by, he'd turn invisible. If anybody wondered why the upper level was only half painted, they didn't ask.

Phantom finished only a little bit after all five of us finished, though Paulina wasn't even near finished with the trim. That was to be expected, so we all grabbed smaller brushes and helped her.

When Phantom finished the top, except for the trim, he grabbed Sam around the waist and flew her up to paint the trim above. Dani snuck off sometime during the painting, but judging to the trim above magically getting painted, I guessed that she was painting the top level's trim invisibly.

All in all, with the ghostly help, we got it done in a couple hours. Dani had come back towards the end, going back to painting the bottom level's trim. Phantom had bid us farewell, but Sam and Tucker had grabbed him by the feet before he could fly off.

"No, no, no!" Tucker reprimanded. "We still have to hang the sign, and since none of us have super-strength and the ability to fly, you're sticking around!"

"Kidnapped by my own friends," Phantom muttered. "Not the first time either."

"You should be used to it by now," Sam stated. "Now come help us paint the sign!"

"What are you going to name the shop?" Paulina wondered.

"The name we decided on was 'Steam'," I told her.

"Ooh!" Dani squealed. "Nice."

"Thanks." Zane smiled.

"What color is this sign going to be? The same as the paint colors?" Phantom asked.

"Yeah, with the letters brown and the background green," Zane repeated what we had decided on earlier.

"Cool, then hand me that bucket of green paint," Phantom commanded, squirming out of Sam and Tucker's grip. Paulina obliged, and Phantom charged his hands with green ecto-energy before shooting an ecto-blast into the paint.

"Uhh…that's not going to become a monster to eat us, is it?" I wondered, fully aware on what ectoplasm could do.

Phantom laughed, along with everybody else. "Nah, I learned how to make your paint permanently glow-in-the-dark, like I did with the white paint on Siomium. Now your sign will stand out, glowing bright green. You don't even need neon lights. Now let's get this painted."

**Actually, yes Valerie. The Paint is going to eat you. KIDDING! I really don't want to deal with writing that out. Lazy me. My clicker thingy needs to learn to click better. MEH!**


End file.
